Rockbrat Remembers: Twisted Sister

Were you a SMF ? Did you PLAY IT LOUD MUTHA !? Mr Rockbrat sure as hell was. Still am actually. Twisted Sister were the real deal. Loud and proud, pure and tough – street level heavy metal at its very best. Their origins date back to the grimy Big Apple in the early-mid-70’s. We only got one tour here in Australia – way back in 1985 but what a tour. I think the Stay Hungry album stayed on the Rockbrat turntable for most of 84/85 from memory. I loved it. Ears are still ringing as well. If you look at some of the TS albums in the photo, an obvious omission is the first album issued on Secret Records. That little collectible is locked in the Rockbrat vault and I would stack their debut album from 1982 up against ANY other rock albums released that year – it’s that good. It’s always tough to produce a killer follow-up album when you’ve had some worldwide success and such was the case with Twisted Sister’s Come Out and Play album. It’s got a neat pop-up cover featuring a slimy Snider crawling out of a drain, but there was no ‘I Wanna Rock’ on there…no ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’, and the general listening public have (for the most part) short attention spans. Shame cos there are some great moments on this record. By 1987, the rock landscape had shifted and Twisted Sister’s day’s were numbered. Did anyone else out there purchase their Love Is For Suckers album ? It contained a great single called Hot Love, which I also bought on 7″. The band pretty much faded away not long after. Snider would surface in the excellent Widowmaker outfit with Bernie Torme, and in recent years they’ve done several re-union shows. If you are on the lookout for a great rock n roll band to discover you are encouraged to search out and purchase the Twisted Sister back-catalogue and annoy the hell out of your parents. And if you care to scoff at the outfits and make-up, let it be known that (unlike many other wimp-rock acts from the 80’s who wore make-up) this bunch of street punks could kick your ass !